


Complex Silences

by Jen425



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, complicated relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27585295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: Fulcrum is sent to help the Onderon cell.
Relationships: Steela Gerrera/Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: Star Wars Rare Pairs 2020





	Complex Silences

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aphorisnt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aphorisnt/gifts).



> I only vaguely remember this arc so any discrepancies can be justified by “AU”.

Ahsoka makes land far from town. She doesn’t know why it hits her more here than it has at other places, in other times.

Maybe it’s the memories. She knows it’s not healthy, but she tries to avoid them.

Avoid all the people she’s lost.

It hurts even still, if she's honest. It was her first exposure to the type of guerilla warfare that is now necessary everywhere, and it isn’t comfortable to think about. She doesn’t want to remember that she hadn’t been able to save…

“Ahsoka?”

Ahsoka blinks. She hadn’t exactly been spacing, and she’d been aware of the familiar presence approaching, but it still takes her a second to remember her current situation.

It’s been, what, four years now? Why do memories like this still haunt her.

(Will they haunt her for life, every deaths she’d born witness to and been unable to stop, from her very first squad?)

Steela meets her gaze.

“I didn’t think you’d be Fulcrum,” she says. “I… always thought you died.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to present,” Ahsoka says. “It’s a dangerous Galaxy out there, with the Empire.”

Steela sighs.

“That it is,” she says. “So, about that informant…”

“That would be me,” Ahsoka replies. “I may not quite have the backing I did back in the day, but I’m not going to stop fighting.”

Steela smiles.

“Of course not,” she says. “I’d never expect that of you.”

The silence after that descends and  _ sticks _ . For long moments. Things at the end, the last time they’d met.

She still doesn’t know why she’s ever felt something for Lux, but it had been a terrible choice from a practical standpoint.

Stupid teenage emotions, emotions that caused jealousy. Stupid jealousy, which meant nothing, which meant even less when Lux had died, and then it had been the two of them and a revolt.

One thing they did have: an understanding. They both understood war since before this one.

“I take it from the secrecy of Fulcrum’s identity,” Steela says. “That you want to relay the information to me alone?”

Ahsoka blinks, effortlessly returning to the present from her thoughts.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she says. “I’ve heard stories of your brother’s radicals.”

“I’m working on it.”

“Good.”

Ahsoka sighs. Taking the data files from a pocket in her belt and tossing it to the other woman. Steela catches it effortlessly.

“Movements across the quadrant,” she says, “good for a month. And my comm frequency. Call it only on a secure line.”

“I know how it work,” Steela counters.

“I know,” Ahsoka replies. “That’s why I’m showing my face. I trust you.”

“Oh.”

Silence, again. Ahsoka has never liked silence, always glad to fill it with the chatters of her crèchemates, and then with Anakin, with Obi-Wan, with…

With the men.

Now the silence is deeper than that, filling the Force with the emptiness of a genocide on Force Sensitives.

And…

And Darkness.

“You good, Tano?” Steela asks, jerking Ahsoka from her thoughts worse than the last time silence had descended.

The echoes of your people’s genocide are harder to escape, it seems.

“I’m okay,” she says, after a moment. “So, that information. Would you like to come onto my ship?”

  
  
  


Ahsoka’s different.

…Well, of course she is. It’s been years and in that time the Galaxy had fallen further into disarray and reformed into a dictatorship.

Steela’s lost plenty of people in the midst of that, herself. But then she thinks that at least she still has her brother.

It’s hard to think about, any of it. Too deep, too big, and you implode on yourself, like it feels Saw is always on the edge of. But that’s unfair, because Saw puts his all into fighting the monsters who work for the empire. This isn’t a war of equals, and rebels are always treated as aggressors until at least when they win.

“I can’t promise perfect specs on their attacks, since we’re seeing more civilian troopers these days,” Ahsoka says. “But this is the most likely weak points and goals of the reinforcements.”

“Reinforcements at least means we’re doing work,” Steela points out.

“It also means things will get worse,” Ahsoka says. “Though I know you’re experienced enough to know that.”

“Right.”

Steela glances back at the information, then.

“Take a small ship onto the Star cruiser,” she says. “Could we take it out?”

Ahsoka’s eyes tighten to points at that, a later focus to the information, herself, and why is Steela watching her instead of the screen, as the former Jedi considers.

“It’s possible, with the right team,” she says. “But it’s too broad a stroke. It might bring attention you can’t handle. For now, it’s the small rebellions. If this was the Cl—“

She cuts herself off. Oh.

“Things change,” Steela reminds.

“Yeah,” Ahsoka says, sighing. “I… I wouldn’t do it, not yet.”

“Then I won’t,” Steela replies. “I trust you.”

And she does, at least in this. Ahsoka’s been fighting as long if not longer than Steela herself, and Fulcrum came with someone to vouch for them.

If Ahsoka says something could put her people in danger, she’ll listen.

“Oh,” Ahsoka responds, after a moment. “Good. But. Yeah. Last I heard you had a fairly large cell behind you. You could do it, but I’d do it only if you knew where to hide and how to respond. So… not yet.”

“Okay,” Steela says. “Guess we’ll both be off, then.”

Ahsoka nods, but neither of them yet move to get up.

“I’m…glad I got to see you again,” Ahsoka says, and Steela blinks. “Not… it’s rare to see a familiar face.”

“I can’t ima—”

Steela cuts herself off. Right.

“I’m glad I saw you too,” she says. “It’s been a hard few years.”

“That it has.”

Ahsoka finally gets up, grabbing a small burner comm.

“This will reach me,” she says. “For protection, it only shows the Fulcrum emblem. I’ll… I’ll call you.”

Steel stands to take it, pulling out the data chip as she does so.

“Guess I’ll be seeing you, then,” she says. “Thank you… Fulcrum.”

It’s like the last of the spell breaks, and Ahsoka is all business as she nods.

“Of course,” she says.

It’s an almost something full of a certain kind of silence.

But it’s still a “see you again.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this!


End file.
